Donegal woman makes headlines Down Under with lead role in rock legend's play

A Letterkenny woman is playing the lead role in a play in Australia that will celebrate Aussie rock and roll star Johnny O’Keefe.

Rachel Diver (neé Hogg) is originally from the Glebe and will play O’Keefe’s wife Marianne in Shout, which takes to the stage for the first of 10 shows - and after five months of rehearsal - on Friday.

From a young age, Rachel was involved in Letterkenny Musical Society and also whilst at Loerto Convent in Letterkenny and then as a third-level student at St Mary’s in Belfast.

With her children taking to the stage, Rachel joined the Gosford Musical Society, which has led to her lead role in the upcoming Shout, which has created such a stir, that Rachel and fellow cast members were featured by the local news channel, NBN, for television interviews. Cody Swansbra will play O’Keefe, with his mother Thelma being played by Kylie Preston.

“It’s really interesting playing a real-life character for once,” Rachel told NBN. “We all play fictitious characters usually in theatres, so researching her has been intriguing and relatable for me.”

Having joined the Gosford Musical Society, Rachel loved performing in Kinky Boots last year. She has been acting and singing from the tender age of five, performing in musicals such as The King and I and Magic of the Musicals productions.

She has played lead roles in Oklahoma, and Calamity Jane and has enjoyed performing in Gilbert and Sullivans’ Mikado as one of the three little maids and in The Pirates of Penzance as well as Little Shop of Horrors.

Shout takes place at Laycock Street Community Theatre, North Gosford, for two weeks from Friday, directed by Leigh Collins with musical director Mark Williams.

O'Keefe, born in 1935, was an Australian rock and roll singer whose career began in the early 1950s. His hits include Wild One - which was re-released in 1986 by Iggy Pop titled Real Wild Child (Wild One) and Shout!, which was originally released by The Isley Brothers in 1958.

O'Keefe was the first Australian rock n' roll performer to tour the United States, and the first Australian artist to make the local Top 40 charts. He ended up with 29 Top 40 hits in Australia between 1958 and 1973, a career over which he released over 50 singles, 50 EPs and 100 albums. In 1958, he married Rachel's character, Marianne Renate Willimzik, a 23-year-old hairdresser in 1958, divorcing eight years later. O'Keefe died in 1978.

“The time is 1957 and there is little or no rock scene in Australia,” is how Shout is described by the Gosford Musical Society. “A local band, the Dee Jays with vocalist Johnny O'Keefe supports Bill Haley when he tours the country. This leads to a contract with Festival Records. He quickly becomes a major figure in establishing rock and roll and pop music in Australia with a series of hit records and performances on Lee Gordon's "Big Shows" supporting some of the greatest names of the rock era (Buddy Holly, Little Richard, Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran, Chuck Berry, The Platters to name a few) which he blasts off the stages of Stadiums with his frantic stage act. An act that earned him the title "The Wild One".

“This cycle of performing leads to overwork and depression for the next ten years and together with a near-fatal car crash in 1960 affects him physically and psychologically suffering from serious highly publicised nervous breakdowns.

“He achieves some of his greatest successes during these times but gradually it takes its toll as he struggles to conform to marriage and family life and health problems leading to his untimely death in 1978 at the age of 43, only one year after Elvis. A celebration of the life of Johnny O'Keefe and his legacy to the Australian music industry.”